Sunday, July 06, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Mayorga follows his own beat, pounds on opponents

By KEVIN IOLE
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Like his ring idol, Mike Tyson, welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga doesn't mind living a little dangerously. His anything-goes approach includes smoking, drinking and staying up late. Photo by Amy Beth Bennett.

Welterweight champion Ricardo Mayorga admits he's a different breed.

For instance, his favorite fighter is heavyweight Mike Tyson -- and the two have a lot more in common than just their amazing punching power.

Like Tyson, Mayorga is seemingly without inhibition, apt to say or do just about anything.

He hasn't been in trouble with the law like Tyson -- except for Mayorga's propensity to drive more than twice the posted speed limit -- but he shares much of Tyson's approach to boxing and life.

Mayorga defends his WBC-WBA title Saturday in a rematch against Vernon Forrest, the first professional card at the new Orleans Arena.

Like most everything else, Mayorga will do it his way. That means smoking cigarettes, gulping a beer on a moment's notice, staying up all hours of the night and never passing up a chance to party.

Mayorga smokes two packs a day between fights, and even in training camp he has two or three cigarettes a day. Trainer Hector Perez has pleaded with him to stop smoking, doing everything short of slapping a nicotine patch on Mayorga's arm.

"I'm a wild and crazy guy," Mayorga says.

He scored the first big upset of 2003 when he stopped the previously unbeaten Forrest in the third round Jan. 25.

Like Tyson, Mayorga relies on his most primitive instinct once the bell rings.

"I go in and try to knock his friggin' head off," Mayorga said. "Simple as that."

But little is simple about Mayorga, who was born in abject poverty in Managua, Nicaragua.

The 29-year-old is married with a son and two daughters. But the most significant moment of his life, he says, was not his wedding day or the birth date of any of his children or even the night he won his first world title.

For Mayorga, that magic moment came on Dec. 16, 2000, on a card thousands of miles away from the world's major boxing centers. At the time, few in the United States had heard of him.

Promoter Don King and matchmaker Bobby Goodman flew to Caracas, Venezuela, and then drove to Maracay for a benefit boxing show.

They were there to see a junior middleweight named Adolfo Salazar, but the local promoter sneered when they asked about him.

"The guy told us, `Forget about him. Wait till you see the guy he is fighting,' " Goodman said.

The first clean punch that hit Salazar had him in trouble. Seconds later, it was over. Ricardo Mayorga had another win and soon would have a new promoter.

"I looked at Don and Don looked and me, and we both knew we had to get this guy's name on a contract," Goodman said.

Goodman had a blank contract in his briefcase, and Mayorga gladly signed.

Looking back, Mayorga says that day turned his life around and "I thank God for the day He brought Don King into my life."

Mayorga has fought four times since joining King, including three world title bouts.

In his first fight for King, Mayorga stopped Elias Cruz in three rounds in February 2001 at Mandalay Bay.

Mayorga then met Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis for the WBA welterweight title in July 2001. That fight was declared no contest after the first round because an accidental head-butt opened a gash on Lewis' head.

When they met again in March 2002, Mayorga stopped Lewis in the fifth round to win the title. Mayorga then blew out Forrest in January to become the world's top welterweight.

Success doesn't seem to have changed the free-spirited Mayorga, who has predicted a second-round knockout and offered to bet $100,000 with any reporter who thinks Forrest will win the rematch.

Mayorga disdainfully calls Forrest "my son" and claims to be upset that he forgot Mayorga on Father's Day.

"No card, no call, no present," Mayorga said. "I'll have to give him a spanking for that. That's not how a good son behaves."

But then, that's typical Mayorga, never too serious no matter the situation.

"I think he'd crack jokes if he was meeting the Queen of England," Perez said.

Mayorga knows when it's time to take care of business, though.

He has quietly shared his wealth with the poor in his native country and plans to bring electric power to the small village of Santa Rosa de Los Pareles outside Managua.

To do that, he must keep winning.

"If I lose, they'll forget about me and toss me aside," said Mayorga, 24-3-1 with 22 knockouts.

"But I won't let that happen. That's why I don't fight like I'm rich. I fight poor -- hungry. I'm mean and nasty. As long as I fight that way, I won't lose."